What is your opinion on billing within NetSuite?
The standard strategy in the Consultants kit-bag regarding billing is usually to work out how to simplify the process to make the client requirement fit within the functionality. In my experience it never works. We eventually end up with a mashup of CSV imports onto custom record, scheduled scripts and the likes. But now, we have SuiteBilling!
Billing from NetSuite has always been a tricky process in my opinion, particularly for tech companies who deal in the realm of usage. Try billing users for service in a month with tiered pricing and recognise revenue correctly – whether you are using legacy or ARM it is always tricky and more often than not it’s a mess.
Admittedly, my exposure to SuiteBilling has been limited, so I did an experiment. Armed with my scepticism and my system knowledge I supported a client through an evaluation process of SuiteBilling.
We set up a pre-demo discussion where we compiled several different revenue and billing scenarios ranging from the dead simple to the highly complex. They were all the usual daily requirements, but for fun we included a few over the top examples to test capability. I was convinced that the Sales Engineer would not be able to achieve success in demonstrating solutions to the current billing pain using SuiteBilling and moving forward with this project would be shelved.
Post demo – I was beyond impressed!
One by one the scenarios were tested within a single account, using common items, common customers from separate and common sales orders, all fully connected and synchronised with ARM. What I saw in SuiteBilling was a complete holistic approach to the problem, and considering billing and revenue as two sides of the same coin this is terrific news. I know this seems obvious, but it hasn’t been the case up until now.
I often hear people say that the future is an End Point solution constructed by best of breed applications connected together by data pipes. NetSuite has stayed the course for 20 years, building the Premier Business Suite in the Cloud. In some areas they haven’t had the ‘best endpoint solution’, but they have always had the ‘best business solution’. The subscription and usage economy is real and SuiteBilling offers all the features of the best Endpoint Solutions for billing automation and brings a truly 360 degree business solution that is unrivalled.
If you are in technology and you want to set yourself on a path for business success, get onto NetSuite early. Work with the features of the limited platform and grow into the capabilities of the advanced offerings as your business moves forward. It will perhaps be an initially expensive investment but as you hit your stride and grow, you will be thanking yourself every day.
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